• “America used to be a beacon of freedom, liberty and anti-corruption efforts. Now a lot of Ukrainians feel like … we are by ourselves,” says a Ukrainian political commentator.
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• He did the thing. There’s no question he did the thing. Everything that’s happening now – the theatrics and distractions, the pundit nitpicking, and the blatant witness tampering – is noise, a spectacle that should only reinforce what any clear-eyed person who’s been paying attention already knows. President Trump held up $400 million in aid to Ukraine to force them to announce investigations into Joe Biden. This for that. Quid pro quo. To be sure, quid pro quos are the mother’s milk of foreign policy. When Biden, in 2016, threatened to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees from Ukraine unless it removed a state prosecutor viewed as corrupt, that was also a quid pro quo. But Biden acted in furtherance …
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• Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor and top State Department official George Kent testified in an open hearing Wednesday, the first of many to come in the impeachment inquiry.
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• Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatists are still exchanging fire and inflicting casualties at hot spots in eastern Ukraine. The separatists haven’t withdrawn heavy weapons, Ukrainians say.
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• The president said the option was one of many he was considering if diplomacy fails. Germany’s chancellor, who held a joint news conference with the president, backs diplomacy to end the crisis.
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• “Clearly what we see is that conditions in eastern Ukraine have to change,” NATO Commander Gen. Philip Breedlove tells NPR’s Renee Montagne.
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• Escalating unrest in the Ukraine is adding urgency to NASA’s decision on the space craft that will replace the shuttle. The space agency is expected to announce any day the space craft that will fly astronauts to the International Space Station. Two candidates – Boeing’s CST-100 and Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser – rely on the Atlas V rocket to launch into space. But the rocket is powered by the Russian-built RD-180 engine. Dale Ketcham of Space Florida says the Atlas V rocket is vital to American space flight. “It’s the workhorse for the military and national intelligence payloads that get into space at present, so that’s what the Russians were threatening to cut off.” Russia threatened to end access to …
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